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doi:10.7592/Incantatio2014_Passalis Laura Jiga Iliescu (coordinator, introductory study and critical edition) Anca Stere, Cristina Neamu. Bucuresti: Cheiron Jiga Iliescu, Laura 2004. O ipostază a “Scrisorii căzute din cer”, la începutul secolului al XX-lea [An hypostasis of the “Letter falled down from the Heaven”, at the beginning og the 21st century]. In: Xenopoliana. Buletinul Fundaţiei Academice “A. D. Xenopol” din Iaşi, XII, 1–4, Iaşi, pp. 165–178 FROM WRITTEN TO ORAL TRADITION. Kapaló, James A. 2011. Text, Context and performance: Gagauz Folk Religion in Dis- SURVIVAL AND TRANSFORMATION OF ST. course and Practice. Leiden: Brill Muşlea, Ion & Bîrlea, Ovidiu 2010. Tipologia folclorului din răspunsurile la Chestionarele SISINNIOS PRAYER IN ORAL GREEK CHARMS lui B. P. Hasdeu [The typology of folklore from the answers at the Question- naire of B. P. Hasdeu]. Cu un cuvânt înainte de Ion Taloş, ediţia a doua revăzută Haralampos Passalis şi întregită de Ioan. I. Muşlea. Bucureşti: Editura Academiei Române. [1970, Bucureşti: Editura Minerva.] Ofrim, Alexandru 2001. Cheia şi Psaltirea. Imaginarul cărţii în cultura tradiţională The Sisinnios prayer or Gylou story, part prayer part exorcism, is an ambigu- ous narrative enjoying an intercultural as well as a diachronic distribution. The românească [The Key and the Psaltery. The imaginary of the book in the Roma- text, which refers to the harmful influence and restraint – through the sacred nian traditional culture]. Cu un cuvânt înainte de Irina Nicolau. Pitesti: Editura intervention of Saints or an Angel – of a female demon bearing different names Paralela 45. (Lilith, Gyllo, Werzelya, Veshtitsa/Aveshtitsa etc., depending on the particular Ong, Walter 1982, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London & ethnic culture from which it has emerged) has received substantial attention from New York: Routledge researchers on an international scale. In the Greek tradition, in which this female Timotin, Emanuela 2005. Legenda duminicii. Studiu monografic, ediţie şi glosar de ... demon is known as Gyllo, Gyloy, Yello or Yalou, there have been recordings of [The legend of Sunday. Monography, edition and glossary by ...]. Cele mai vechi more than thirty versions of the text, spanning a time period from the fifteenth cărţi populare în literatura română, vol. X. Bucureşti: Fundaţia Naţională pentru up to the early twentieth centuries. These recordings are located geographically Ştiinţă şi Artă – Academia Română. in various different parts of Greece, and have been used within the framework of a folk religious context as a means of protection for newborn babies and their Tsonkova, Svetlana, 2011. Practical texts in difficult situations: Bulgarian medieval mothers. What is the effect of this particular story on the oral tradition of charms, charms as Apocrypha and Fachliteratur. In: Incantatio. An international Journal i.e. on those charms which are orally transmitted and performed? What forms on Charms, Charmers and Charming, 1, pp. 25–35. http://folklore.ee/incantatio/ has it assumed, and which particular elements of the written tradition have been Incantatio_2011_1_Tsonkova.pdf transmitted, incorporated, transformed, modified or omitted from charms in the process? The present study aims, on the one hand, to contribute further to the exploration of the well-known myth, and, on the other, to offer additional insight About the author into the interaction between the written and oral tradition of charms in light of the fact that the Gylou story is particularly susceptible to those interpretational Laura Jiga Iliescu is a senior researcher at the Constantin Brailoiu Institute studies which focus on the crucial processes of incorporation and transformation of Ethnography and Folklore in the Romanian Academy (Bucharest, Romania). of the written tradition in the field of oral charms. Her main domains of interest are interference between oral and written cultural Key words: Archangel Michael, Greek oral charms, exorcisms, Gylou story, expressions during European pre-Industrial times; traditional, modern and female demon, folk religion, Saints, St. Sisinnios prayer, written/oral tradition. virtual religious narratives, rituals and practices; mountain ethnology; the for- malised externalisation of knowledge in oral performance; fieldwork techniques; and archiving and editing documents relating to intangible cultural heritage. INTRODUCTION The text of the so called “St. Sisinnios prayer”, where a “child-stealing witch” (Gaster 1900), or a ‘child-harming’ / ‘child-killing’ female demon (Lyavdansky 2011: 19–20) afflicting new-born children, and pregnant or recently delivered women, has attracted and continues to attract the interest of many researchers of various scientific fields.1 Traces of this story appear in magic plates, scrolls, lead amulets, pendants, illustrated magic manuscripts, frescoes, “over a time- 110 www.folklore.ee/incantatio Incantatio 4 111 Haralampos Passalis Survival and Transformation of St. Sisinnios Prayer in Oral Greek Charms span of several thousand years in many cultures scattered widely around the the visit by her saintly brothers (Sisinnios, one or two others), their admission eastern Mediterranean and in other parts of Europe” (Greenfield 1989: 140).2 after some debate, and the slipping through of Gylou (more often transformed During its diachronic and cross-cultural journey the story has been used as a into a fly) who kills the new baby in the night; 4) the chase, capture, torture of general and structural scheme for the symbolic representation of social fears and the malevolent demon by Melitene’s brother, and negotiation in order to make angst, inscribed in the collective subconscious, regarding afflictions which may her give the children back – Gylou’s demand to drink human milk in order to occur to vulnerable social groups and especially at crucial times of the biological give the children back is miraculously fulfilled and at least one child is given and social cycle of life, such as in pregnancy and in early childhood. Along this back; 5) Gylou is tormented again by saints and then reveals her secret names route the structural pattern of the story remained almost the same, though which work as an amulet against her. variants has appeared mainly in the female demon’s names (Abyzou, Lilith, In the Michael type story, the central role of the sacred personae is often Lilita, Malwita, Zardukh, Lamastu, Alabasandria, Gallu, Gyllo/Gylou, Werze- undertaken by Archangel Michael or some other holy figure (Greenfield 1989: lya, (A)veshtitsa, “Ebedisha,” etc.), and also in the names of sacred personae 92). This type, which follows a simpler encounter pattern contains three basic (Salomon, Sisinnios/Sisynios (and Synidores), Socinius, Sousnyos, prophet Elias, sections, the order of which varies from the text to text (Greenfield 1989: 104): archangels Michael, Gabriel etc.) it features.3 1) an encounter of the archangel Michael (or some other sacred figure) with the In the Greek academic field, this prayer is well known by the name of the demon and description of demon’s appearance followed by archangel’s demand female demon as an exorcism of Gylou, also Gello, Gillou, Gillo, Iallou etc.4 to know where she has come from and where she is going; 2) answers to these (< ancient Greek Γελλώ [Gello], Byzantine/modern Greek Γελλού [Gellou], Γιλλού questions by giving an account of the demon’s actions which includes information [Gillou]).5 A variety of researchers have extensively examined this text as it concerning the disguises she may adopt and the harm and afflictions she may appears in Greek culture from the Byzantine period till nowadays.6 The most cause chiefly to babies and to women during the period immediately before or systematic analysis of the literary evolution of the Greek Gylou story remains, after giving birth (she may also be associated with a wider range of misfortunes); however, the approach of Greenfield (1989). In his research, Greenfield ap- 3) the revelation, after being threatened, of her names which could be used proaches the content and the types of the Greek Gylou story “over a span of as a preventive measure in an amulet or prayer against her harming actions. almost six centuries and quite a wide geographical distribution [and] provides The story of Gylou in any of the aforementioned types, and with greater or an important... insight into the process of traditional interaction, alteration and lesser differentiation, remained alive in Greek traditional culture till the middle development which lies behind the contemporary, the encountered, forms of of the twentieth century, both in the oral/folk and written/learned tradition. such popular belief” (Greenfield 1989: 140). His thorough examination, based The two traditions where this text appears also represent two different systems upon thirty two more or less distinct versions of the story (Greenfield 1989: 90), of communicative technology and at the same time two different systems of resulted in the distinction of two basic motifs and types of this text: Sisinnios/ transmission and performance which are in constant feedback and interrela- Melitene type and the Michael type stories. According to Greenfield (Green- tionship. This paper aims at examining this interrelation and feedback, while field 1989: 92), “Of the thirty-two versions being considered, seven are of the giving special attention to the oral tradition of the story. To begin with, given Sisinnios/Melitene type, twenty two are of Michael type, and a further three that these issues have been approached in detail by previous scholars, we will contains versions of both types”. It is worth mentioning that in both types the briefly examine the written tradition of the text as well as the survivals and same female demon presents herself by using several comprehensible as well traces connected with legends, rituals and superstitions in the context of Greek as incomprehensible names the number of which varies from variation to varia- traditional culture. Then we will try to detect traces of survival and modifications tion and it ranges from 12 to even 72.7 in the charms, in particular those which are orally transmitted and performed.